Pour Me Something Tall and Strong

[Draeden Blackwood]

Admittedly, Draeden felt terrible about what he was about to do. But admittedly, he wasn't perfect. He wasn't sure how Phoenyx or anyone could expect him to be perfect. Phoenyx was asleep, he had left her a note that he would be back in a little while, and now, he was at the Leaky Cauldron.

For a drink. Even though he had told Phoenyx that he would not drink in solidarity until she could drink again. But, he had just had the worst day at work and he had already talked to Phoenyx about it but he just needed a drink. A zebra could only change his stripes so much.

He slid onto a bar stool. "Firewhiskey," he said, to the bartender, who may or may not have been Lewis Longbottom, he honestly wasn't looking. He knew he would end up telling Phoenyx about this later and she would forgive him, but he had to admit at the moment he felt just the tiniest bit guilty.

[Brian McKenna]

"FIREWHISKEY!" a drunken slur bellowed out from the end of the bar. Brian must have passed out a bit there, but hearing the name of his current best friend had revived him. Heck if the speaker of said name was buying, Brian might just have a new best friend.

He wearily lifted his tousled head and looked bleary eyed at the man at the other end of the bar. It was "Blachwuh? Issat you? Wha er you doon here?" he asked, pretty sure they guy had a wife or wondering if instead he had a twin brother.. or maybe triplet brothers since he was looking at two of them. Did Blackwood even have a twin brother? He wasn't sure.

[Draeden Blackwood]

The loud firewhiskey caught Draeden's attention and he turned to see McKenna at the end of the bar. McKenna, for his part, appeared to be wasted out of his mind and Draeden could hardly understand what he was saying. As the bartender placed the firewhiskey in front of him, Draeden turned back to it and he brought the glass to his lips. He tasted it and then set it back down.

What was happening to him? Was it possible Phoenyx was turning him into a good person? Who had . . . well Draeden wasn't sure if he would call them "friends." But perhaps quasi-friends. He slipped some money on the counter for the drink and then went over to McKenna. "Come on," he said, slapping him on the shoulder. "Somebody ought to get you home."

[Brian McKenna]

Blackwood came over to him and apparently wanted him to go home. Was the man nuts? Besides being way too early in the evening for that, his mum would have a fit if he walked through the door shit-faced. If he was lucky, his brothers would get to him before she did and would most likely get him to bed properly (though they might as likely do to him what they did to Jeremy Taylor back at school), but then give him hell in the morning while he was trying to nurse a hangover.

Of course, that's not actually what he was thinking. He just didn't want to miss any of the fun.

"Naw on yer life!" he answered, tipping over slightly on his bar stool, an action that got him giggling as he tried to straighten up. "Unless yer planning on brining alog a cupla girls with us..."

[Draeden Blackwood]

"Well," Draeden said. "If you keep drinking like this you're going to wind up dead in a back alley covered in your own vomit." Draeden paused, feeling weirded out by the words that came out of his mouth. When did he start caring? When did he start sounding like such a dad? He shook his head. "You know," he said. "I'm a married man and I'm not going to cheat on Phoenix, but if you can string together a sentence to get a girl to come home with you, well, I'd be mighty impressed."

Of course, he had seen Brian hanging out with Anastasie, but that didn't mean anything. At least it didn't mean anything to Draeden. At least that part of Draeden hadn't changed.

[Brian McKenna]

"Pssshhhh..." Brian answered, unaware that he was spitting slightly. "I'm na gonna be dead!" His brothers would never let that happen. Where were they anyway? And he was pretty sure he never threw up. Sometimes he thought he had, but when he woke up in the morning, the only evidence of drinking was a monstrous headache and a funky taste in his mouth. His brothers liked to mess with him then, asking Mum to make extra runny eggs and oatmeal, but if he got sick from that, his mum was always nice to clean it up while he slept.

He blew another raspberry, expressing his opinion of Draeden being married. "Yer no fun," he proclaimed, thinking Blackwood sounded like a stick in the mud, not the fun guy he used to know. "I kn get th best lookn bird n ths place if I want..." he proclaimed, looking around. Where was Stasie?

[Draeden Blackwood]

Draeden was beginning to wonder why he even bothered. For all he cared, McKenna could deal with the results of his choices. Draeden always had. He always would. He wasn't sure, if he asked himself honestly, why he had gotten involved with Brian, except that perhaps he was looking for a challenge. And there weren't as many of those to go around these days as he'd like. It was a little routine with Phoenyx. But he loved her, so he'd have to get his challenge in elsewhere.

Like trying to convince super drunk people they've had enough apparently. "Well then," he said. "If you're up for the challenge." He pointed at a woman. "Try her. See if you can get her."

[Brian McKenna]

Brian looked over towards the direction Blackwood was pointing, but instead of a gorgeous blonde was a tall buxom brunette that reminded him a little of Natalie Andrews. And while it had been Natalie Andrews who had helped him reach manhood, she just wasn't his type.

"Ppppbbbtthh," he scoffed, rolling his eyes. He could get a girl like that if he wanted to. He just didn't want to. "Noooooo, I said good looking." Sure that girl was pretty smoking hot, but she was no Stasie.

Hold on. Should he even be picking up on girls?

"Okayokayokay... I have a hythophetical question for you because you're like with Phoenyx, right?" he started. "Is it cheating if you're just playing around and don't really mean it? Waywaywaywaywait... is it cheating if you aren't really really together but you kind of want to be?"

[Draeden Blackwood]

Draeden looked at that girl again. Brian was either drunker than he thought - or, "The only guy who doesn't think that girl is hot is the guy whose heart belongs to another." Of course, Draeden wasn't oblivious. Of course, he had seen things. But he wasn't going to say it out loud. It wasn't his decision to make.

"Dude," he said. "Yes, I'm like with Phoenyx. You were there at our wedding, remember? That's pretty with someone." He finally plopped himself into the seat next to McKenna. "You," he said. "Are really asking the wrong person. Before Phoenyx, I didn't really care about anyone's status. Married or unmarried. Together or not together. But since Phoenyx. Shop's closed. No one else."

[Brian McKenna]

The wedding... oh yeah. Brian vaguely remembered something like that. He remembered a snowy forest and a lot of people, but the truth was, his attention hadn't been on any of it. He had really only cared about one other person.

"Me neither! I didn't care! I... I don't care!" Well, maybe he did care a little bit. The point really was, he shouldn't care. But even if he didn't care (or get a whole lot of opportunities that weren't paid for), he still had standards, right?

But that didn't really answer his question (or had it? Brian was kind of shit-faced and wasn't even really sure what he had asked). "But is it cheating? Hypthaleticly... should you be going after other girls if you think you want to be with a different one?"

[Draeden Blackwood]

"Hypothetically," Draeden said, slapping him on the back. "I think it matters what you think. If you don't think it's cheating, then it's fine. If you think it's cheating, you probably shouldn't do it." Draeden had never been accused of having much of a moral compass.

He sighed and took a drink of his firewhiskey, which had sat untouched until this moment. "Everyone knows, you know," he said. "It's the worst kept secret in the world, I assure you. And I don't blame you, she is quite attractive." Draeden did at least have the sense to keep other details about her to himself.